


The Solitary Starsinger

by Katadenza



Category: Vocaloid
Genre: Angst, Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, If you catch all the references in this fic you get an ice-cream sandwich, Kaito-centric, Planet-hopping, Science Fiction, Vocaloids IN SPACE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-02-23 04:29:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23805796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katadenza/pseuds/Katadenza
Summary: Kaito, an artificial performer known as a Starsinger, wanders the galaxy with nothing but his lyre and his singing voice to get him by. But why does he wander alone?One-shot written for Project ABCD's "WISH GIVER" Kaito fanzine.
Relationships: Kaito & Crypton Family
Comments: 8
Kudos: 36





	The Solitary Starsinger

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Project ABCD's Kaito Charity Fanzine "WISH GIVER". The first zine I've ever participated in, and it was for Kaito's 14th birthday too! As the zine has been digitally released now to all buyers, I think I can finally show this fic to the rest of you, in time for April 23, this month's Kaito Day. It was a fun ride, writing this, even if I inevitably crammed a lot near the end (lmao). But I hope that I've ultimately done Kaito justice with this story, in my favorite literary genre of sci-fi, because honestly this blue-haired synth deserves the whole dang world.
> 
> (By the way, if you see any other Kaito fanworks by my fellow zine contributors floating around social media, please give them your support! They all worked very hard and their art looks amazing!)
> 
> Enjoy!

Kaito had learned to walk carefully among the sand dunes, but all that did was keep him from tripping over his own feet. There was no way to keep the sand from pouring and accumulating into every crevice of his artificial body, tiny grains finding their way between the joints of his actuators and scratching them up until they cried out for any sort of lubricant. His scarf was now wrapped around his nose and mouth to keep the wind from blowing even more sand into his airways, but he couldn't cover his eyes no matter how much they stung and struggled to gather data through the kicked-up dust clouds, so he pressed on.

The desert was trying to fight its way inside him, trying to assimilate the aberration that walked on its surface. On this part of the planet, there was only the burning sky above and sand beneath, bleached skeletons buried beneath the dunes until the wind uncovered them. Kaito had thought that they were outcroppings of rock at first, until he kicked more sand away to reveal a grinning skull. A warning.

Kaito kept going, his lyre bundled beneath his long jacket, held close to his chest.

He reached the crest of a dune, and saw a caravan down below gathered near a signpost. His heart leapt into his mouth, and he turned as quick as he could, hoping they wouldn't see him. Had someone arranged a search party already? No, it should’ve been impossible, he was several systems away from _them_ by now, and he was certain he had been discreet. Have they really managed to find him…?

Too late. Someone was calling out to him. Kaito struggled to go back the way he came, but he finally lost his footing on the shifting sand and the next thing he knew he was tumbling down the dune.

Eventually, the world stopped being a dusty blur and the readings of his internal accelerometers steadied out. Kaito blinked for a few moments, stunned, before he became aware of a hand being offered to him.

Kaito hesitated, and took it, pulling himself up. The hand belonged to a human wearing a large wooden mask. In fact, all the humans surrounding him wore masks, staring at him and murmuring. He wilted under all their gazes, but then realized that they were asking if he was alright.

He _was_ alright, if a bit mortified, but-- his _lyre_! He took the bundle of cloth out and unwrapped it with shaking hands. He had tried to protect it as he rolled, but was it enough? Was it alright? It slowly revealed itself, worn metal and beautiful curves, the strings still taut and the panels still blinking. Kaito sighed in relief.

The caravan's murmurs and whispers grew louder as he gave his lyre an experimental strum. "Starsinger," one said. "You're a starsinger, aren't you?"

There was no point in hiding it now, not after revealing his lyre. "Yes," he said, his tinny, metallic voice confirming everything the humans needed to know. At least they didn’t recognize him for who he really was: a runaway.

The humans grew excited, their whispers growing more intense as they, pointed at him and his strange instrument. "Why is he alone?" another asked. "Starsingers never come alone, that's what I heard..."

He shrank back at that question, hands dropping to his sides. If he could, he would've run back into the empty desert, but there were people surrounding him on all sides, leaving him no way to escape.

He was alone because he _deserved_ to be alone. It was as simple as that.

"Come with us!" someone said, placing a hand on his shoulder and making him flinch. "We haven't seen or heard a starsinger in a long time. We have food, water, ah- right, you’re a starsinger... you don’t really need those..." They fell silent, their mask giving no expression other than the fierce snarl carved into the wood. "Well, we have grease, and a spare solar panel or two..."

What else could Kaito do? The grinding in his joints and his flagging power supply made two very convincing arguments, but being surrounded by the patiently waiting caravan was the _coup de grace_. He reluctantly agreed, walking with them through ravines and over mountains, across sandy plains and rocky lifeless terrain that never seemed to end. In all that time, Kaito thought that something was missing. Something that he didn't even know he longed for until, to the relief of the caravan, they reached a grassy steppe.

That night, the caravan brought out their instruments and built the largest bonfire they’ve made in their whole journey, gleeful from the anticipation of their destination approaching. "Sing for us," they pleaded to him. "Surely, you must have a song!”

Someone started playing the flute, its light and airy notes unmistakable to Kaito's ears, and something in him _ached_. It finally hit him. He hadn’t heard a single bird since he had arrived on this planet.

"Alright," Kaito said, taking out his lute, "Let me tell you a story, about a girl..."

Kaito began to sing of a girl with the voice of a songbird, whose hair shone with the color of emeralds or a clear sky, depending on how she was hit by the sunlight. He sang of her frolicking in green fields and forests, of meadows full of flowers and colors he hadn’t known he missed so much until then. He sang of how she was adored by all, how she was welcomed everywhere she went, how, with her perfect voice, she was never turned away, never rejected, always loved.

It was then Kaito realized how silent everyone was as they watched him, the fire casting flickering shadows on their stoic masks. Kaito became aware of every crack in his voice, every out-of-tune note he plucked on his lyre. Had his body been capable of it, he would've broken out into a cold sweat. What did they really think of him, him and his grating, nasally, unnatural voice?

It was all he could do to finish the song as fast as he could, so he could run away and hide among the tall, sweeping grass.

* * *

"A starsinger?" A burly human, clearly drunk, pointed at him and laughed. "What's one of those piles of junk doing here?"

Why, _why_ was he always noticed at the worst of times? Kaito tried his best to make himself small, huddling closer to the charging station of the wall of the dingy bar he was in. Outside, the lights of this planet's capital city flashed and flickered all the colors of the visible spectrum, the deafening sounds of traffic barely dampened by the thin walls. Sensors overloaded with stimuli... a part of him actually longed for the desert again.

The human didn't leave him alone. "Why are you alone, little robot?" he jeered. "Where are all your friends? Are you lost?"

The other bar patrons began to laugh. Kaito looked at the bartender, trying to plead with his eyes, but the bartender, as artificial as Kaito was, simply continued to dispense cocktails according to its directive.

"Make it sing!" someone yelled. "Make it do a dance for us!"

"Starsingers don't dance, idiot!" another yelled back.

"Yeah they do! They do these cute group dances-"

"Well, how would YOU know that-"

Too much. Kaito would've wrapped his scarf around his eyes and ears, but it was bundled around the lyre in his arms. He could only settle for squeezing his eyes shut and pressing himself harder against the wall.

Rough hands grabbed at his shoulders and arms, hauling him up so he stood upright. He was shoved to the center of the rowdy crowd, a harsh spotlight shining down on him. Kaito saw that any single one of them could turn him into scrap metal in an instant. There were criminals and tattooed mercenaries with large muscles and even larger guns, cyborgs and their synthetic limbs with a variety of sharp and nasty attachments, even rogue androids who completely shaken off all pretense of looking human, all of them watching him with amusement.

"Sing! Sing! Sing!" they cried.

Kaito couldn't get out his lyre fast enough. His hands shook as he plucked at the strings, notes random and unsteady. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out except a small squeak, which made the crowd roar with laughter. Kaito took a deep breath and tried to get his hands to stop shaking. He tried again.

He sang of a woman, the strongest one he had ever known. A woman with blazing fists and a spark in her eyes, with a voice as powerful to match. She who had the strength to punch hostiles ten times her size into submission, to carry her entire family through fire and storm, and drink everyone who challenged her under the table. (The last one drew another laugh from the crowd.) He sang of her never backing down from a fight, who defended everyone she loved with every ounce of coolant in her body, who wouldn’t let anyone down because she was simply _strong_ enough to do so.

They listened with rapt attention, murmuring among themselves and nudging at each other excitedly. But eventually, someone grew irritated at his performance and threw a bottle at his head. Kaito squeaked again and ducked, the bottle hitting the human standing right behind him.

Chaos broke out. Kaito was forgotten as the bar patrons started brawling with each other with reckless abandon, throwing chairs, smashing tables, and howling insults. Kaito crawled at their feet, desperate to make his weak and pathetic self utterly unnoticeable, his lyre once again tucked under himself as he crawled on the grimy, alcohol-stained floor. He only stood once he had reached the exit, not even bothering to dust himself off. As he left, the last thing he saw was the bartender android, still mixing cocktails as the establishment was destroyed around him.

* * *

The human scientist scowled down at Kaito, her ice-blue eyes visible through her glasses. "You are not authorized to be here, starsinger."

Kaito froze. "Yes, I am," he said, fighting to keep his voice under control. "Check- You can check my authori- authorization code." He tugged at the sticker haphazardly stuck to his dirty jacket. "I was just on my way to the cargo hold..."

He wasn't lying. He had rushed to board the spaceship, scheduled to launch soon according to the dock schedule. He _was_ on his way to the cargo hold, but after wandering a maze of off-white corridors and elevators, he had gotten all turned around in his panic. If he belonged there... _that_ was another matter.

She raised an eyebrow and tapped a scanner in her hand, reading the code. But she didn't even look at it before speaking again. "Did you really think we would have a scruffy-looking starsinger as cargo?" she countered. "This is an expedition ship."

“I-"

"The code you've..." she sighed, " _creatively_ acquired, is for a shipment of ice cream that-- while almost equal to your current mass, I'll give you credit for that-- was recorded as having been unloaded just _after_ this ship docked. Nice try."

He had been _so sure_ that would work... Trying to find a piece of cargo with the same mass as himself and his lyre had taken _days_. He had even eaten some as a reward, which, Kaito realized, was a bit foolish to do in hindsight.

"And even if this were a passenger ship," she continued, "Starsingers, a registered _group_ of starsingers," she paused, giving him a meaningful look, "-would be taken aboard as guests of honor, and not with the common labor droids in the cargo hold."

Kaito felt like hiding his face in his jacket, anything to get out of the scientist's judgmental stare.

The scientist sighed, shaking her head. "We don't have time to deal with stowaways," she muttered. "Now, I'll help you to the exit, and if you leave quickly and quietly, I won't inform the Orbital Guard-"

"Hey, where did you find a starsinger?" Another scientist popped up behind her, a shorter man with a much brighter expression than his colleague. "What's your name?" he asked.

"...Kaito?"

"That voice... that's a real starsinger, alright! Incredible, I've never seen one so up close!" He walked around Kaito, inspecting him all over. "Where's the rest of your group, Kaito? What sector are you based from? Who was your manufacturer? Oh, that _lyre!_ How long have you had it? How was it made?" The scientist kept bombarding Kaito with more questions, too quickly for him to even begin answering.

The taller scientist brought a hand to her face. "Is this necessary? He has to get off the ship-"

"One song."

"What?" The taller scientist raised an eyebrow.

"I just want to hear _one_ song from Kaito," the man repeated. "Please? I've never been to a live performance, I've only seen recordings, oh _please,_ " He clasped his hands together, eyes wide and pleading.

The taller scientist rolled her eyes, and relented. "Alright. One song. Impress us, starsinger," she said, addressing Kaito. "You’re lucky you've run into _this_ fanatic."

He didn’t know if he was capable of impressing _anyone_ , but he didn’t have a choice. What would he sing about this time? Kaito felt the rumbling of the ship beneath him, the engines coming to life as it prepared to launch into the unknown.

Kaito opened his mouth, strummed his lyre, and sang.

He sang of a woman who seemed to know about everything in the galaxy, a living repository of knowledge, always seeking out more answers no matter where they hid. There was no problem she couldn't solve, no conundrum that she couldn't deduce her way through. She who stood tall and confident in times of peril, telling her family not to panic, that there was a solution, there was _always_ a solution, and it was only a matter of finding the correct one.

As Kaito sang, he thought of his own slapdash plan, a plan that had been completely dismantled in the space of a minute as soon as he had run into the wrong person. And he had been so sure of himself too! So arrogant to believe that someone like _him_ could possibly come up with anything clever. His face burned with shame and his voice faltered. How could he have been so _stupid?_

The sound of clapping interrupted his racing thoughts. Kaito looked up, and saw the shorter scientist applauding him. "Bravo! Bravo!" he cried. "They're amazing, aren't they?" he nudged his enraptured colleague, whose expression looked oddly distant.

"Thank you, I'll just... go now..." Kaito said, heart sinking at the thought of spending several more days at the dock.

He had only taken several steps toward where he thought the exit when he heard the taller scientist say, "Wait!"

He turned, blinking. The taller scientist couldn't look him in the eye, her cheeks slightly flushed. "You... you may stay. We have someone who couldn't make it, so you could take their bunk until our first stop."

Kaito was stunned. The shorter scientist whooped with joy, grabbing Kaito by the arm and dragging him off in the opposite direction. "The guys in the lab are gonna love this! Come on, Kaito! I have so many questions!"

* * *

"Two thousand credits is enough," Kaito said to the backstage manager, shuffling nervously. His soft words were swallowed by the sudden strong hot wind that made his scarf and jacket whip around in the wind. The manager, unfazed, yelled at him to repeat what he just said.

"I SAID," Kaito yelled, cursing his weak voice. Had that scientist's questioning worn his vocal synthesis engine out? "I CAN TAKE TWO THOUSAND CREDITS!" The wind had stopped mid-shout, making the arriving crowds surrounding them to look at the two questioningly. Kaito flushed and hid his face in his scarf. "I mean," he said, lowering his voice, "If that's okay with you."

" _Just_ two thousand?" the manager raised an eyebrow. "For a _starsinger?_ ”

Kaito doubted his voice was even worth half that. "Well," Kaito shrugged helplessly, "I _am_ alone... and I don't need much..." Just enough to pay the fare to get off-planet. No more sneaking aboard ships for him.

"Two thousand..." the manager muttered, shaking his head. "Lowest talent fee I've ever... alright, tell you what, I'll throw in an extra three hundred credits."

"Really?"

"You're selling yourself short, boy! The starsinger groups I usually deal with ask for ten times as much as you," the manager snorted. "But don't think this is a charity case, alright? Look at them," He put an arm around Kaito's shoulder, pointing out the humans gathering around the outdoor stage.

They were on a beach, the planet's eternal sunset casting a beautiful orange glow on all of them. Boats were pouring in from the ocean side, from the side of the planet Kaito knew always had perpetual day, and countless motorized sleds were coming in from further inland, from the side that always had perpetual night.

"These people are seeing their families for the first time in a year, and deserve only the _best_ entertainment. I pay you two thousand three hundred credits, as much as a starsinger deserves, and I expect you to _perform_ like the starsinger you say you are. That clear?"

Kaito nodded meekly. The manager clapped him on the back and shoved him onstage with enough force to nearly make Kaito drop his lyre. A strong wind blew again from the sea, the roar amplified by the onstage microphones as Kaito stumbled to them, an arm covering his face. He looked out into the sunset, the perpetual gold and amber twilight balancing night and day, looked out at the crowd of reunited families that began to settle down in front of the stage, and decided what he wanted to sing about.

With a strum of his lyre, he began to sing of a boy and a girl, twins in all but flesh and blood, with hair as golden as the sun. His voice carried over the wind as he kept singing of how they were different as night and day, yet always synchronized with their melodies, united in harmony, complementing each other perfectly like the two sides of a mirror. How they stood together as one, always watching each other's backs. Sticking together, through happiness and sorrow and pain and joy, no matter what.

The crowd, encouraged by his jaunty song, stood and began to dance, singing with him. Kaito saw them, saw parents lift their children on their shoulders to get a better view, saw couples hug each other and weep after endless months apart, saw others link their arms and laugh together. Celebrate together. Belong together.

And there Kaito stood on that bare stage, watching them all as he sung alone.

* * *

No matter how many times Kaito tripped and collapsed to the ground, he could never get the hang of navigating the treacherous landscape around him. The sky of this planet was dark, a thick cloud layer only letting the smallest amount of light through as he stumbled and struggled his way forward, keeping his lyre bundled safely under his jacket. The ground was littered with sapphire-colored crystals of all shapes and sizes, small ones crunching under his feet like sharp gravel, and large ones the size of boulders embedded in the soil of this hostile planet.

The sky above him thundered. Soon after, it began to rain.

Kaito had seen many kinds of rain as he planet-hopped through the galaxy. He had seen planets that rained frozen carbon, water, and plasma. Sometimes it rained acid, or glass, or even, in one bizarre case, liquid methane.

On this planet, it rained crystals.

He kept his head down, trying to go faster. It was bearable at first; a few crystals landing on his head and back didn't bother him. The planet with the acid rain had been much more dangerous to him. But more crystals just kept falling, and soon Kaito realized he was in the middle of a storm.

He was battered relentlessly by the falling crystals, scraping and tearing at his artificial skin. He tried to use his jacket as a makeshift umbrella, holding it over himself to give his head some respite, but the old jacket, worn, stained, and dirty, was barely holding it together as it was. By the time he had reached the foot of a large mountain, it was completely in tatters from all the crystals tearing through it.

He had to find somewhere to wait out the storm, somewhere safe. He looked around, but there weren't any crystal boulders big enough to shelter under in the immediate area. He looked up at the mountain above him, and... there! Halfway up was a crystal overhanging a ledge that looked just large enough for him to sit on, but he still had to reach it. It was better than nothing.

Kaito began to climb. The slope was steep, slippery from all the loose crystals under his feet. He tried to hang on to any crystals that jutted out of the mountain, but he was having difficulty with only one arm free. It was a massive strain on his limbs, the hydraulics struggling to keep up, and he could _still_ feel grains of sand within his joints, scratching them up and making the ordeal infinitely more uncomfortable than it had to be.

Regardless, he hauled himself up the near-vertical slope, from crystal crag to crystal crag, the skin on his hands being worn down to the bare metal skeleton underneath, but he couldn't afford to lose his grip now. The crystals from above continued to rain down on him, and he couldn't see anything beyond his next step. He juggled the lyre from one hand to another, trying to keep at least one hand on the mountain as he got closer and closer to the ledge...

He was almost there. He was now on level with the ledge, just too far away to crawl onto it. He could make out a tenuous handhold between it and his current position where he was hanging on for dear life, but he didn't know where he was going to place his feet. He would have to take a leap of faith.

Holding his breath, Kaito tensed, and made a wild grab for the handhold. For a single, heartstopping second, his hand gripped the tiny crystal, found purchase-

And slipped.

And Kaito, helpless to do anything else, tumbled down the side of the mountain.

When the world finally stopped spinning, Kaito found himself on his side in a deep gully, crystals still raining down onto his face. He tried to sit up, but to his horror realized he couldn't. He tried to lift a hand to brush them away, to at least keep the crystals out of his eyes, and realized he couldn't do that either. The only part of his body he could move was his head. Kaito ran diagnostics on himself, and his heart sank when found that the most of his motor drivers had been damaged in the fall.

He was stuck. Well and truly stuck.

As Kaito tried to quell his ever-increasing panic, he realized that his lyre was nowhere to be found. He looked around him, straining his neck, but didn't see it anywhere nearby. It too, seemed to have been lost in the fall. Lost, possibly forever.

As the reality of his situation sank in, a thought slowly came to him. He shouldn’t have left them. He shouldn't have run away.

_No_ , another part of him thought. No, he _was_ right to run away, if this was all he could ever amount to. Stupid and _weak_ , a _failure_ who was unable to protect himself or his lyre. Unloved, unwanted, and now trapped in a gully.

Alone.

He was right to run away. They really _didn't_ deserve someone like him, someone who would’ve only held them back. He didn't deserve anyone like them. He didn't belong with them. This was for the best.

He shut his stinging eyes. It was the crystals. Just the crystals. Still falling from the dark sky. Burying him.

Kaito's eyes shot open. The rain was burying him!

Panic returning, Kaito began to call for help, pushing his voicebank to its limit as he shouted as loudly as he could. He screamed, he cried, and for some strange reason Kaito found himself singing. He sang a lament, mournful and keening, an apology to the family he had left behind, the family he had surely disappointed by being himself, begging for forgiveness he knew would never come.

Because no one was coming for him.

Eventually, his vocal synthesis engine finally gave out, his power supply unable to give any more energy to it. At this point, the crystals had buried the rest of his body from the neck down. Soon, he would lose the energy to even shake off the crystals threatening to bury his head. And they just kept coming...

This was it, wasn't it? There really was nothing else he could do. Kaito gave up, resting his head on the cold ground, watching his power tick down, down, down...

Just as his systems forced him into an emergency low-powered state, he thought he heard a distant voice. Almost like a songbird’s...

* * *

Kaito suddenly became aware of more voices, surrounding him. Scared, anxious shouting. Strong arms, lifting him up. Crystals falling off of him, crashing to the ground.

He was being carried. By who? Kaito could barely focus. Not enough power for visual sensors. A husky voice, confident, giving directions, but Kaito couldn't make out the words. Not enough power for verbal comprehension. His system clock... how much time had passed? Not enough power, not enough power...

He was laid down onto a solid metal surface, then he was moving. He could feel the wind rush past him, hear the roar in his ears. Kaito was vaguely aware of being opened up, his internal hardware being manipulated. But Kaito didn’t care. He just wanted to sleep.

Eternities seemed to pass until Kaito felt himself stop moving. Then he was being carried again. Kaito supposed he should've been worried about where he was being taken, but he didn't have the power to worry. He should be asleep. Why wasn't he asleep?

He was put down again, this time sitting upright. And suddenly, Kaito felt power flow into him. The realization hit him. He was at a charging station!

His various systems slowly came back online. He could hear more voices around him, but he could finally understand what they were saying:

_"Is he going to make it? I'm scared!"_

_"They said the damage they repaired wasn't that serious. He just needs to charge now."_

_"What if he doesn't remember us?"_

_"He’s definitely going to remember us, what the heck makes you say that?"_

_"Kaito... please wake up..."_

Those voices...

Kaito finally opened his eyes.

And there they were, his rescuers. The five of them, all tensed and staring at him with worried looks on their faces. The one who stood the closest to him, those blue-green twintails, she was, she could only be...

"Miku?" Kaito croaked.

"Kaito!" His family cried out, hugging him in relief. He was unable to breathe, being hugged by five pairs of arms at once. "Meiko... Luka... Rin... Len..." he wheezed, trying to gather the strength to hug them back.

"Kaito, you jerk, why did you leave us like that?" Meiko shouted, burying her face in his hair. "You had us all worried sick!"

"How did you... how did you find me?" Kaito asked in disbelief.

"We've been looking _everywhere_ for you," Miku answered, looking up from where she had buried herself in his chest. "Across the stars, every planet we went, we just kept asking around," she explained, teary-eyed and smiling. "You know, all those people you've sang to, those hearts you've touched with your stories and songs? They remembered you. They loved you. And they told us where to find you."

Kaito choked up, his voice catching in his throat. That wasn't possible. This couldn't be real. "But... why?"

Miku blinked. "Why? Why what?"

"Why did you bother to look for me? Why did you even bother to save me?" Kaito asked, tears coming to his eyes. He pushed them all away, much to their shock. "I'm worthless!" he shouted. "Useless! Stupid... weak... the starsinger with the _worst_ voice... Why do you think I..." he scrubbed at his eyes, but the tears wouldn't stop. "Why do you think I ran away? I'm just a burden to the rest of you..."

His family looked at each other, sharing glances as Kaito tried to control his breathing. Then, Meiko gently laid a hand on his shoulder. "I don’t know, Kaito. Travelling for so long, by yourself, surviving in such dangerous places? I believe you're stronger than you think. We heard you out there, you know? That’s how we found you on that mountain. I’d know that violin voice anywhere,” she smiled at him.

"And you may not know everything in the world," Luka admitted, "but you somehow always knew the right words to sing. You always knew what songs everyone wanted and needed to hear, and sang them so expertly. I envy you for that, Kaito."

"We haven’t sung together since you left," Rin said, hopping up to him. "None of our songs sounded _right_ without you!” she pouted. “People kept asking us to perform without you, but it wasn’t the _same_. We couldn’t harmonize at _all_.”

"Yeah," Len agreed. "It's like there was always something _missing_. It just didn’t feel right to do anything without you being there. Home felt… _sad._ So, we promised we wouldn’t rest until we got you back."

Miku came forward, and the others made space for her. She was carrying something in her arms, a bundle wrapped in familiar cloth. “I missed your voice, Kaito,” she said. “Your warm, kind voice... and your beautiful playing.” She gave the bundle to him, and with a shock, he realized it was his lyre, completely intact, save for a few slight dents. "The truth is," Miku continued, “We came all this way because, no matter what you think of yourself, we see who you really are, and we love you."

Kaito’s heart began to race. "Do I...” he whispered, “Do really belong with you? Despite everything?"

"Yes, you do, you big dummy!" Meiko laughed. "What part of 'We love you' don't you understand?"

She tackled him in another hug, and the others followed as Kaito began to sob in earnest, hugging them all back tightly.

“We missed you.” “Come back to us.” “We love you, Kaito."

_"We love you."_


End file.
